The Role and Design of Instructional Materials

Instructional Materials THE ROLE AND DESIGN OF

Curriculum Development By: Nafiri Muhammadi

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The Role and Design of Instructional Materials

1. Authentic Versus Created Materials

2. Textbooks

3. Evaluating Textbooks

4. Adapting Textbooks

5. Preparing Material for a Program

6. Managing a Materials Writing Project

7. Monitoring the Use of Materials 2

Introduction

Teaching materials are a key component in most language programs. Whether the teacher uses a textbook, institutionally prepared materials, or his or her own materials, instructional materials generally serve as the basis for much of the language input learners receive and the language practice that occurs in the classroom.

In the case of inexperienced teachers, materials may also serve as a form of teacher training they provide ideas on how to plan and teach lessons as well as formats that teachers can use. Much of the language teaching that occurs throughout the world today could not take place without the extensive use of commercial materials.

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Introduction

Printed: books, workbooks, work-sheets

Nonprintend: cassettes or audio materials, videos, or computer-based materials

Print and nonprint sources: self-access materials and materials on the Internet

Materials not designed for instructional use: magazines, newspapers, and TV materials

TEACHING MATERIALS

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Introduction

The Role of Materials in Language Teaching:

a resource for presentation materials (spoken and written)

a source of activities for learner practice and communicative interaction

a reference source for learners on grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, and so on

a source of stimulation and ideas for classroom activities

a syllabus (where they reflect learning objectives that have already been determined)

a support for less experienced teachers who have yet to gain in confidence

Cunningsworth (1995, 7) 5

Authentic Vs. Created Materials

Authentic materials refers to the use in teaching of texts, photographs, video selections, and other teaching resources that were not specially prepared for pedagogical purposes.

Created materials refers to textbooks and other specially developed instructional resources.

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Advantages claimed for authentic materials:

They have a positive effect on learner motivation

They provide authentic cultural information about the target culture.

They provide exposure to real language

They relate more closely to learners needs and hence provide a link between the classroom and students needs in the real world.

They support more creative approach to teaching.

(Phillips and Shettlesworth 1978; Clarke 1989; Peacock 1997)

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However, critics of the use of authentic materials point out: Created materials can also be motivating for learners.

Authentic materials often contain difficult language and

unneeded vocabulary items, which can be an unnecessary distraction for teachers and learners.

Created materials may be superior to authentic materials because they are generally built around a graded syllabus and hence provide a systematic coverage of teaching items.

Using authentic materials is a burden for teachers.

(Phillips and Shettlesworth 1978; Clarke 1989; Peacock 1997) 8

Textbooks The use of commercial textbooks in teaching has both advantages and disadvantages, depending on how they are used and the contexts for their use.

Advantages They provide structure and a syllabus for a program.

They help standardize instruction.

They maintain quality.

They provide a variety of learning resources.

They are efficient.

They can provide effective language models and input.

They can train teachers.

They are visually appealing. 9

Textbooks

Disadvantages

They may contain inauthentic language.

They may distort content.

They may not reflect students needs.

They can deskill teachers.

They are expensive.

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Evaluating Textbooks Before one can evaluate a textbook information is needed on the following issues:

1. The role of the text book in the program

Is there a well-developed curriculum that describes the objectives syllabus and content of the program or will this be determined by the text-book?

Will the book or textbook series provide the core of the program, or is it one of several different books that will be used?

Will it be used with small classes or large ones?

Will learners be expected to buy a workbook as well or should the text book provide all the practice students need?

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Evaluating Textbooks

2. The teachers in the program

How experienced are the teachers in the program and what is their level of training?

Are they native speakers of English? If not, how well do they speak English?

Do teachers tend to follow the textbook closely or do they use the book simply as a resource?

Do teachers play a part in selecting the books they teach from?

Are teachers free to adapt and supplement the book?

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Evaluating Textbooks

3. The learners in the program

Is each student required to buy a book?

What do learners typically expect in a textbook?

Will they use the book in class and at home?

How will they use the book in class? Is it the primary source of classroom activities?

How much are they prepared to pay for a book? 13

Evaluating Textbooks Criteria for Textbook Evaluation

Cunningsworth (1995) proposes four criteria for evaluating textbooks, particularly course books:

1. They should correspond to learners needs. They should match the aims and objectives of the language learning program.

2. They should reflect the uses (present or future) that learners will make of the language. Textbooks should be chosen that will help equip students to use language effectively for their own purposes.

3. They should take account of students needs as learners and should facilitate their learning processes, without dogmatically imposing a rigid method.

4. They should have a clear role as a support for learning. Like teachers, they mediate between the target language and the learner. 14

Evaluating Textbooks DudIey-Evans and St. John (1998, 173) suggest that operating with so many categories is often not very practical and it is easier to use two or three key criteria in the first instance and then apply others if or when needed. They propose the following questions to ask when selecting ESP materials:

1. Will the materials stimulate and motivate?

2. To what extent does the material match the stated learning objectives and your learning objectives? (It is rare for a single set of published material to match the exact learning needs of any one ESP learner group, and activities do not always meet the stated objectives.)

3. To what extent will the materials support the learning process?

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Adapting Textbooks

Most teachers are not creators of teaching materials but providers of good materials. Dudley-Evans and St. John (1998, 173) suggest that a good provider of materials will be able to:

1. select appropriately from what is available

2. be creative with what is available

3. modify activities to Suit learners needs

4. supplement by providing extra activities (and extra input) 16

Adapting Textbooks

Commercial textbooks can seldom be used without some form of adaptation to make them more suitable for the particular context in which they will be used. This adaptation may take a variety of forms.

1. Modifying content.

2. Adding or deleting content.

3. Reorganizing content.

4. Addressing omissions.

5. Modifying tasks.

6. Extending tasks.

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Preparing Material for a Program

In cases where institutionally developed materials are being considered for a language program, both the advantages and the disadvantages of setting up a materials development project need to be carefully considered at the outset.

Advantages Disdvantages

Relevance Cost

Develop expertise Quality

Reputation Training

Flexibility 18


The Nature of Materials Development

It is also important to understand the nature of materials development and the processes that are typically involved if quality materials are to be created.

Dudley-Evans and St. John (1998, 173) observe that only a small proportion of good teachers are also good designers of course materials. Many teachers underestimate how commercial teaching materials are developed and the developmental processes that are normally involved.

Preparing effective teaching materials is similar to the processes involved in planning and teaching a lesson. The goal is to create materials that can serve as resources for effective learning. The writer starts with a learning goal in mind and then seeks to create a set of activities that enable that goal to be reached.

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Tomlinson (1998) suggests that good language teaching materials have the following characteristics:

Materials should achieve impact.

Materials should help learners feel at ease.

Materials should help learners to develop confidence.

What is being taught should be perceived by learners as relevant and useful.

Materials should require and facilitate learner self-investment.

Learners must be ready to acquire the points being taught.

Materials should expose the learners to language in authentic use.

The learners attention should be drawn to linguistic features of the input.

Materials should provide the learners with opportunities to use the target language to achieve communicative purposes.

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Materials should take into account that the positive effects of instruction are usually delayed.

Materials should take into account that learners have different learning styles.

Materials should take into account that learners differ in affective attitudes.

Materials should permit a silent period at the beginning of instruction.

Materials should maximize learning potential by encouraging intellectual, aesthetic, and emotional involvement that stimulates both right and left brain activities.

Materials should not rely too much on controlled practice.

Materials should provide opportunities for outcome feedback. 21


Decisions in Materials Design

In Chapters 5 and 6, the following processes of program design and materials design were discussed:

developing aims

developing objectives

developing a syllabus

organizing the course into units

developing a structure for units

sequencing units

When the process of writing begins, further decisions need to be made. These concern:

choosing input and sources

selecting exercise types

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CHOOSING INPUT AND SOURCES

No matter what type of materials are being prepared decisions concerning input are involved. Input refers to anything that initiates the learning process and that students respond to in some way in using the materials. The following are examples of input questions in the design of different kinds of materials:

Grammar materials:

Will the new grammar items be presented through the medium of texts, conversational extracts, or a corpus of utterances? How will these be selected?

Listening materials:

Will the source of listenings be authentic recordings taken from real-world sources, scripted materials on different topics, or a mixture of both?

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Reading materials:

What kinds of texts will students read (such as magazine articles, newspaper articles, extracts from books), and how will these be chosen?

Writing materials:

Will students be shown examples of different types of compositions? Will these be examples of real texts or will they be specially written? Will examples of student writing also be included? If so, how will these be chosen?

Speaking materials:

What will the source of speaking activities be? Will dialogues, recordings, texts, topics, pictures, situations, and so on be used, and how will these be selected?

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SELECTING EXERCISE TYPES

One of the most difficult decisions in writing is deciding on the types of exercises that will be used. The issue is how to create exercises that engage learners in the use of skills and processes related to specific language teaching objectives. A review of the exercise types used in current commercial textbooks is a good starting point. In Richards (1990), for example, exercise types related to different types of listening skills are presented as follows:

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Exercises that develop top-down listening Listen to part of a conversation and infer the topic of a conversation.

Look at pictures and then listen to conversations about the pictures and match them with the pictures.

Listen to conversations and identify the setting.

Read a list of key points to be covered in a talk and then number them insequence while listening to the talk.

Read information about a topic, then listen to a talk on the topic and check whether the information was mentioned or not.

Read one side of a telephone conversation and guess the speakers responses: then listen to the conversation.

Look at pictures of people speaking and guess what they might be saying or doing; then listen to their actual conversations.

Complete a story, then listen to how the story really ended. 3

Guess what news headlines might refer to, then listen to news broadcasts about the events referred to.

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Exercises that involve listening for interactional purposes

Distinguish between conversations that have an interactional and a transactional purpose.

Listen to conversations and select suitable polite comments and other phatic responses.

Listen to utterances containing complements or praise and choose suitable responses.

Listen to conversations containing small talk and indicate when the speaker is preparing to introduce a real topic.

Listen to conversations and rate them according to the degree of familiarity of the speakers.

Listen to conversations and check whether the speaker is-issuing a real invitation or using a pseudo invitation to close a conversation. 27


Grellet (1981) contains an extensive taxonomy of exercises for teaching reading skills. Under the category understanding meaning: she illustrates exercises of the following types:

Involving a nonlinguistic

response to the text Involving a linguistic resource to the text

ordering a sequence of pictures

comparing texts and pictures matching using illustrations completing a document mapping it out using the information in a text

jigsaw reading

reorganizing the information: reordering events

reorganizing the information: using grids

comparing several texts completing a document question types study skills: summarizing study skills: note taking 28

Managing a Materials Writing Project

Materials writing projects are of different scope and dimensions. Some may be the responsibility of an individual teacher; others may be assigned to a team of writers. The management of a team-based writing project involves addressing the following issues:

Selecting the project team

Planning the number of stages

Identifying reviewersPlanning the writing schedule

Piloting the materials

Design and production 29

Monitoring the Use of Materials

No matter what form of materials teachers make use of, whether they teach from textbooks, institutional materials, or teacher-prepared materials, the materials represent plans for teaching. They do not represent the process of teaching itself. As teachers use materials they adapt and transform them to suit the needs of particular groups of learners and their own teaching styles. These processes of transformation are at the heart of teaching and enable good teachers to create effective lessons out of the resources they make use of. It is useful, therefor, to collect information on how teachers use course books and other teaching

materials in their teaching.

The information collected can serve the following purposes:

to document effective ways of using materials

to provide feedback on how materials work

to keep a record of additions, deletions, and supplementary materials teachers may have used with the materials

to assist other teachers in using the materials

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Monitoring the Use of Materials

Monitoring may take the following forms:

Observation:

classroom visits to see how teachers use materials and to find out how materials influence the quality of teaching and interaction that occurs in a lesson.

Feedback sessions:

group meetings in which teachers discuss their experience with materials

Written reports:

the use of reflection sheets or other forms of written feedback in which teachers make brief notes about what worked well and what did not work well, or give suggestions on using the materials

Reviews:

written reviews by a teacher or group of teachers on their experiences with a set of materials and what they liked or disliked about them

Students reviews:

comments from students on their experience with the materials.

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Conclusion We have disscussed about the role and design of instructional materials with particular focus on print materials and textbooks. Teaching materials are a key component in most language programs. When plans regarding the role of materials in a language program are made, an initial decision concerns the use of authentic materials versus created materials.

Commercial textbooks together with ancillaries such as workbooks, cassettes, and teachers guides are perhaps the commonest form of teaching materials in language teaching. With such an array of commercial textbooks and other kinds of instructional materials to choose from, teachers and others responsible for choosing materials need to be able to make informed judgments about textbooks and teaching materials. Evaluation, however, can only be done by considering something in relation to its purpose. A book may be ideal in one situation because it matches the needs of that situation perfectly. The same book in a different situation, however, may turn out to be quite unsuitable.

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Conclusion In cases where institutionally developed materials are being considered for a language program, both the advantages and the disadvantages of setting up a materials development project need to be carefully considered at the outset. It is also important to understand the nature of materials development and the processes that are typically involved if quality materials are to be created. When the process of writing begins, further decisions need to be made, these concern choosing input and sources and selecting exercise types.

Materials writing projects are of different scope and dimensions. Some may be the responsibility of an individual teacher; others may be assigned to a team of writers. The management of a team-based writing project involves addressing the following issues: (a) selecting the project team, (b) planning the number of stages, (c) Identifying reviewers, (d) Planning the writing schedule, (e) Piloting the materials, and (d) Design and production.

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Conclusion No matter what form of materials teachers make use of, whether they teach from textbooks, institutional materials, or teacher-prepared materials, the materials represent plans for teaching. They do not represent the process of teaching itself. As teachers use materials they adapt and transform them to suit the needs of particular groups of learners and their own teaching styles. These processes of transformation are at the heart of teaching and enable good teachers to create effective lessons out of the resources they make use of. It is useful, therefor, to collect information on how teachers use course books and other teaching materials in their teaching.

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The Role and Design of Instructional Materials

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